WARWICK man Simon Goddard was about to wrap up a 10-year leadership stint when disaster struck.

The Eventing World Cup came to Morgan Park as Mr Goddard marked a decade as president of the Warwick Horse Trials club in August 2007.

He said he never could have predicted what was to be his final event as president would be marred by the largest outbreak of equine influenza

"We had about 600 people and 225 horses at Morgan Park that weekend,” Mr Goddard said.

"On the Thursday before the event we'd heard about a case at the Eastern Creek quarantine centre in Sydney and my wife asked if I thought it would affect our event.

"I got a call from one of our riders coming from New South Wales, saying one of his horses was feeling sick, which isn't uncommon with travel sickness but not for a second did we think it was EI.”

Most riders stayed at the Morgan Park for the entire weekend, awaiting news of whether the infection had spread.

"By Monday some people from the government had come and on Tuesday morning we were told we would be in lock down for another 90 hours,” Mr Goddard said.

"After those 90 hours we were told 42 days; about 150 people chose to stay with their horses even though they could leave.”

Ten years on, Mr Goddard is sharing his memories of the outbreak in his new book, Condoms and Handwash.

The title of the self-published book is derived from two of the staple supplies Mr Goddard said he thought those remaining in lock down would need.

"I didn't want anyone ending up vomiting or with diarrhoea, or pregnant so I said we would need handwash and condoms,” he said.

"The first few hours were the toughest when we didn't know what was going on.

"We ended up having a quarantine set up where people would have to sign in and wash absolutely anything coming in or out down before they entered or left Morgan Park where food would get passed over.”

The book is $15 plus $6 for postage. To order, email goddardcs@ bigpond.com